rules and faqs

RUles

This is the only rulebook OF Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup 2018 which is valid for the tournament, its participants (for the purpose of this Rulebook hereinafter "Team(s)") and all matches played within the scope of the Tournament. With his participation, the Team and its players (hereinafter "Player(s)") state that they understand and accept all rules specified in this Rulebook.

1.2 Participants

A tournament participant is a Team or a Player that is participating in the tournament. Any member of a Team is a participant of that Team. No Player can be part of more than one organization or team taking part in Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup 2018.

1.3 Time Zone

All matches will happen as per Indian Standard Time and schedule for each match will be given to the team atleast 24 hours before match time regardless of the opponent being decided or not.

1.4 Tournament Officials

Each Team can contact the Tournament administration by sending a message on the official tournament website.

1.5 Penalties

1.5.1 Definitions

Penalties are given for rule violations within the tournament, they may be either minor or major penalties dependent on the incident in question.

1.5.1.1 Minor Penalties

Minor penalties are given for minor incidents such as not uploading required match media, insufficient match statements, insufficient information on a Team account or other related material, and so on.

1.5.1.2 Major Penalties

Major penalties are given for major incidents such as deliberately deceiving admins, failing to show up for matches, repeated rule breaking, and so on.

The Tournament administration reserves the right to amend, remove, or otherwise change the rules outlined in this Rulebook, without further notice. The Tournament administration also reserves the right to make judgment on cases that are not specifically supported, or detailed in this Rulebook, or to make judgments that even go against this Rulebook in extreme cases, to preserve fair play and sportsmanship.

2.2 Validity of the Rules

If any provision of the Rulebook shall be invalid or impracticable in whole or in part this shall not affect the validity of the remaining part of this Rulebook. In lieu of the invalid or impracticable provision an appropriate provision shall apply which is nearest to the intent of to what would have been the intention in keeping with the meaning and purpose of the Rulebook.

2.3 Confidentiality

The content of protests, support tickets, discussions or any other correspondence with Tournament officials and administrators are deemed strictly confidential. The publication of such material is prohibited without a prior written consent from the tournament administration.

2.4.1 Code of Conduct

All Teams and Players agree to behave in an appropriate and respectful manner towards other Teams and Players, spectators, the press, the broadcast team, tournament officials, and Tournament administration. Being role models is the occupational hazard of being a Player or organizer and we should behave accordingly. Any sort of harassment should be reported to the official Tournament administrators immediately. Harassment includes but is not limited to

also considered harassment are things like sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following,

harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact and

unwelcome sexual attention.

Similar restrictions apply not only to the Teams and Players, but every single person involved with or present at a stage of the Tournament. Anyone breaking this code of conduct may be punished, including expulsion and possibly criminal prosecution.

2.4.2 Prohibited Substances and Methods

2.4.2.1 Doping

2.4.2.1.1 Refusing to be tested

Refusing to be tested in case testing needs to be carried out is considered doping. Punishments will be the same as for severe cases of substance abuse.

2.4.2.1.2 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods

The List of Prohibited Substances and Methods created by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is valid for the Tournament. The list can be found here: http://esl.pm/prohibitedlist

2.4.2.1.3 Prescribed medication

If Players have an active prescription for a substance on the WADA list, they must send proof to the Tournament administration before the first day of the Tournament. They may still be subject to a doping test, but a positive result for the prescribed substance will be disregarded.

2.4.2.1.4 Categories of Doping

Mild cases of doping will be punished with a warning and possibly minor penalty points for the participant. Severe cases (i.e. use of drugs containing performance enhancing substances, like Adderall) will be punished with higher penalties such as a ban for the Player and (a) default loss(es), as well as possibly disqualification of the Team.

Repeated cases of doping by the same Player will be punished harder, up to a lifetime ban for the Player.

Repeated cases of doping on the same Team (but by a different Player) will also be punished harder for the Team.

Repeated cases of doping by the same Player on the same Team will be punished harder for both the Team and the Player.

If a player is found guilty of a severe case of doping only after the last match of the tournament has already been over for at least 24 hours, the player will still get a ban, but the tournament result will remain in place and there are no consequences for the team. Mild cases will not be punished at all, after that time.

2.4.2.2 Alcohol or other psychoactive drugs

To play a match, be it online or offline, under the influence of alcohol or other psychoactive drugs, even if not among the punishable substances, is strictly prohibited, and may lead to severe punishment. Moderate consumption of alcohol outside the active tournament hours for a participant is permitted if not in conflict with local/national law.

2.5 Additional Agreements

The Tournament administration is not responsible for any additional agreements, nor do they agree to enforce any such agreements made between individual Players or Teams. The Tournament administration highly discourages such agreements taking place, and such agreements that are contradicting the Tournament Rulebook are under no circumstances allowed.

2.6 Match Broadcasting

2.6.1 Rights

All broadcasting rights of the Tournament are owned by the tournament organizers. This includes but is not limited to: Video streams, TV broadcasts, GoTV, shout-cast streams, replays, demos or live score bots.

2.6.1.1 Waving these rights

Waving these rights is not possible. No one except the tournament organizer owns all broadcasting rights to the tournament.

2.6.2 Teams Responsibility

Teams cannot refuse to have their matches broadcast by TE Cup-authorized broadcasts, nor can they choose in what manner the match will be broadcast. The broadcast can only be rejected by the Tournament administration. The Teams agree to make sufficient accommodation so that broadcasting of matches can take place.

2.7 Communication

2.7.1 E-Mail

The main official communication method of the Tournament is email, the Tournament will use the email that has been provided by the user/team at the time of registration of the team, and therefore this email address should always be kept updated and checked regularly so that no important announcements are missed.

2.8 Conditions of Participation in the Tournament:

The following conditions must be met in order to participate in the Tournament.

2.8.1 Age Restriction

All Players participating in the Tournament have to be over 14 years of age. If the player is less than 14 years of age, then parental written approval letter is to be submitted to the tournament organizer before participating in the Grand Finale.

2.8.2 Home Country/Region

A Player’s home country is the country where his main place of residence is. The tournament is open to all players/teams residing in India.

2.8.3 Residence/Nationality and Number of Players in a Team

The Team roster can hold a maximum of five Players. All team members need to be residents of India and be residing in India at the time of participating in the tournament.

Each qualified team for Grand Finals has to option to replace one player from their registered team by informing the tournament organizer in advance.

2.8.4 Game Accounts

Every Player must have their own SteamID with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or DOTA 2 in order to play the tournament and must submit it during registration. The same cannot be changed once a tournament has begun.

2.8.5 Team Names & Team Jerseys

The participating team’s name may not have any extensions such as “CS team”.

Team Jerseys will be provided TE Gaming Cup for each team and players need to wear them compulsorily during the entire tournament duration.

2.8.6 Changes on the Team Accounts

Any changes in the Team account should be approved by the Tournament administration before the changes are allowed to take place.

Adding or removing Players

Changing the Team name

Changing the Team logo

If a Team is for any reason unable to compete any more in the Tournament, and is removed before the replacement deadline, the next best possible replacement team will be given the available slot by the tournament organizer.

2.9 Replacement Deadline

Replacements will only be entered into the Tournament stages until a reasonable time before the beginning of that stage. If by then no replacement could be found, the stage may start with one less participant instead.

2.10 Prize Distribution Ceremony Attendance

Each team has to ensure that the entire team of 5 players are present for the prize distribution. In case a team fails to attend the prize distribution as a whole, their tournament prizes may be forfeited by the tournament organizer.

2.11 Match Start

2.11.1 Punctuality

All matches in the Tournament should start as stated on the website, no changes to the time can be requested. All Teams and Players in a match should be on the server or in the game lobby and ready to go at the latest 15 minutes before the match is to start.

2.11.1.1 Request a new game server or lobby

Teams must report game/server issues no later than five (5) minutes before the scheduled start time of the match. Failure to do so will forfeit a Team’s right to request a game server change at the Tournament administration’s discretion.

2.11.2 Delaying the Match

Match starts are absolute unless changes have been confirmed by the Tournament administration. Not starting a match as scheduled will result in penalties. After 15 minutes of now show or unable to start the match, the team in question is considered as no show.

2.11.3 No show

If a Team is not ready to play 15 minutes after the official match starting time, the Team will be considered as no show and will receive a default loss and will be the disqualified from the Tournament.

2.12 Match Protests

2.12.1 Definition

A protest is for problems that affect the match outcome; a protest may even be filed during a match for things like incorrect server settings and other related issues. A protest is the official communication between the Teams and the Tournament administration and can be filed to the tournament organizer over email.

2.12.2 Match Protest Rules

2.12.2.1 Deadline for Match Protests

The latest time that Teams are allowed to issue a match protest is the earliest of the three following:

6 hours after the scheduled starting time of the match and before 24 hours.

Only at offline events: The beginning of the next match for either of the two Teams (a minimum of 10 minutes have to be kept between two matches by all Teams)

Only at offline events: The end of the event day (departure of the referees)

2.12.2.2 Contents of a Match Protest

The protest must contain detailed info about why the protest was filed, how the discrepancy came to be and when the discrepancy occurred. A protest may be declined if proper documentation is not presented. A simple “they are cheaters“ will not do.

2.12.2.3 Behaviour in Match Protests Insults and flaming are strictly prohibited in a protest, and may result in penalties or the protest being ruled against the insulting party.

2.13 Interviews

For every game that is broadcasted, one Player from each Team must be available for an over-the-phone or Skype interview in case required by the tournament organizers. The Team must provide contact information via the team sheet for an interview in that case. In addition to this, players may also be required for interviews with members of Press and/or of tournament organizers throughout the tournament.

For an orderly and pleasant game it is essential that all Players have a sporting and fair attitude. The most important and most common offences are listed below. However, the Tournament administration may assign penalties for not explicitly listed types of unsportsmanlike behaviour (e.g. harassment).

3.1.1 Insults

All insults occurring in connection with the Tournament will be punished. This primarily applies to insults during a match but also on the tournament website or facbeook page. Insults on IRC, IM programs, E-mail or other means of communication will be punished if the evidence is clear.

Particularly severe abuse cases with radical statements or the threat of physical violence can result in significantly heavier penalties including the exclusion or the ban of the Player from the Tournament.

Depending on the nature and severity of the insult the penalty will be assigned to the Team.

3.1.2 Spamming

The excessive posting of senseless, harassing or offensive messages is regarded as spamming in the Tournament. Spamming on the tournament website and facebook page will be punished depending on the nature and severity.

3.1.3 Spamming In-game

Penalties will be awarded if the chat function in-game is abused towards the goal of annoying the opponent, or generally stir the flow of the play. The all chat functions are there to communicate efficiently with the opponent and the match admins.

3.2 Unsportsmanlike Behaviour

For an orderly and pleasant game it is essential that all Players have a sportive and fair attitude. Breaches of this rule will be punished. However, the Tournament administration may assign penalties for not explicitly listed types of unsportsmanlike behaviour (e.g. harassment).

3.2.1 Misconduct

The attempt to mislead admins or other Players, using false information, or in any other way deceive other Players or Teams will be punished. Common offenses are mentioned below.

a) Faking Match media

b) When cheating is suspected, and the match media in question has been faked, then six (6) minor penalty points will be awarded.

c) Ringer/Faker

d) Playing with Disallowed Player

e) Misleading admins or players

3.2.2 Cheating

When cheating is uncovered, The Team will be disqualified from the current Tournament. The use of the following programs will result in a cheat ban: Multihacks, Wallhack, Aimbot, Coloured Models, NoRecoil, No-Flash and Sound changes. These are only examples, other programs or methods may be considered cheats as well.

3.2.3 Betting or gambling

No Players, Team managers, staff or management of attending organizations may be involved in betting or gambling, associate with betters or gamblers, or provide anyone any information that may assist betting or gambling, either directly or indirectly, for any of the Tournament matches or the Tournament in general. Any betting or gambling against your own organizations matches will lead to an immediate disqualification of the organization for all persons involved. Any other violation will be penalized at the sole discretion of the Tournament administration.

5.1 Use of any storage devices like pendrive/HDD or any other external device at offline events is not allowed. In case you need to update your cfg or require any drivers for your equipment, please let the tournament organizers know well in advance.

The below VETO system will be used for selection of the map which will be played in a BO1 Game. A knife round will be played to decide starting sides.

Team who wins the toss bans the first map.

Team who loses the toss bans the second map

Team who wins the toss bans the third map

Team who loses the toss bans two maps – Fourth & Fifth.

Team who wins the toss bans the sixth and final map.

The Remaining map will be played.

7.1.3 Best-of-three Matches

The below VETO system will be used for selection of the map which will be played in a BO1 Game. A knife round will be played to decide starting sides.

Team who wins the toss bans the first map.

Team who loses the toss bans the second map

Team who wins the toss picks the first map to be played

Team who loses the toss picks the second map to be played

The third map will be randomly decided between the remaining 3 maps.

7.1.4 Nickname Ingame

Each Player has to use his official nickname during matches. It’s not allowed to add any (funny) additions, characters or words, only exceptions are sponsor names which are limited to one (1) per Player.

7.1.5 In-Game item’s nametag

Players are not allowed to use nametags on in-game items which violate the Code of Conduct.

7.2 Number of Players

All matches must be played with complete line-ups, other constellations, substitutes or standins are not allowed. A team can only compose of maximum 5 players. If a Team fails to show up with enough Players, the match will count as no-show and will be forfeited.

7.3 Dropping of Players

If a Player drops before the first kill in the first round of a half, then the half will be restarted.

If a Player drops after the first kill have been made and has not returned when the round has been decided, then the match will be paused at the start of the next round.

If a Player drops and the opponent has been notified before any damage has occurred during that round, then the round will be restarted.

If a Player has not returned, or cannot be replaced within 10 minutes after the pause has started, then the Team with the dropped Player may forfeit the match or continue to play the match with minimum 4 while his teammate can rejoin during the match.

7.4 Change of Players

All matches must be played with complete line-up, other constellations, substitutes or standins are not allowed. A team can only compose of maximum 5 players.

If a Team fails to show up with enough Players, the match will count as no-show and will be forfeited.

7.5 Leaving the Server

All matches must be played to the end, failure to do so will be penalized. A match is considered complete when one Team has reached 16 rounds during the regular match time or won the majority of rounds during overtime on the final map.

7.6 Continuing a Disrupted Game

If a match is interrupted (e.g. server crash) then the match should be continued where it left off. All fully completed rounds before the crash count towards the final score of the match.

7.7 Overtime

In case of a draw after all 30 rounds have been played, an overtime will be played with mp_maxrounds 6 and mp_startmoney 10000. For the start of the overtime Teams will stay on the side which they played the previous half on, during half-time sites will be swapped. Teams will continue to play overtimes until a winner has been found.

The final score of a match with overtime is the official result for that match, however for ranking purposes only the final score of a match with overtime is considered as 16:15.

7.8 Usage of pause function

If a Player has a problem that prevents him from playing on, he is allowed to use the pause function. The pause function has to be used at the beginning of the next round (during the freeze time). The Player has to announce the reason before or immediately after he paused the match. If no reason is given, the opponent may unpause the game and continue playing. Unpausing or pausing the game without any reason will lead to consequences for the team.

reason will lead to consequences for the team.

7.9 Configuration / Startparameters

The following commands are forbidden:

mat_hdr_enabled

The following startparameters are forbidden:

+mat_hdr_enabled 0/1

+mat_hdr_leven 0/1/2

All other configuration changes are allowed as long as they do not give an unfair edge or advantage comparable to cheating. A Player may be penalized for wrong settings in any config file, regardless if it is in use, or even stored in the game folder in question.

Wrong settings will be penalized. If three or more Players have wrong settings the Team will get a default loss. Admins may under special circumstances decide on a default loss, even if less than three players have wrong settings.

77.10 Forbidden Scripts

In general, all scripts are illegal except for buy, toggle & demo scripts.

Stop shoot scripts [Use or AWP scripts]

Center view scripts

Turn scripts [180° or similar]

No recoil scripts

Burst fire scripts

Rate changers (Lag scripts)

FPS scripts

Anti flash scripts or binding (snd_* bindings)

Bunnyhop scripts

Stop sound scripts

Jumpthrow scripts

If Team is not sure if a script is allowed or not, then Team shall contact the Tournament administration before it plays an official match.

A Player may be penalized for forbidden scripts in any config file, regardless if it is in use, or even stored in the game folder in question.

Forbidden scripts will be penalized. If three or more Players have wrong settings the Team will get a default loss. Admins may under special circumstances decide on a default loss, even if less than three Players have forbidden scripts.

7.11 A3D

The use of A3D (2.0) or any program, driver or interface that simulates A3D (2.0) is strictly forbidden, and will be punishable under the cheating paragraph.

7.12 Graphics drivers, or similar tools

Any modification or changing of the game using external graphics solutions or other 3rd party programs are strictly prohibited and may be punished under the cheating paragraph. Furthermore it's forbidden to use all kinds of overlays which will show the usage rate of the system in any way ingame (e.g. Nvidia SLI display, Rivatuner Overlay). Overlays which will show only the frames per second (FPS) are not forbidden and can be used.

7.13 Colour depth

Every Player must play with the highest color setting in Counter-Strike (32 bit); if the Player is playing in windowed mode then the desktop must also be on 32bit setting.

7.14 Custom Data

Only steam skins are allowed to be changed, any other changes to sprites, skins, score boards, crosshairs are strictly disallowed, also only the official models are allowed. If a Player plays with custom files, then this will be penalized with a default loss.

7.15 Use of Bugs and Glitches

The intentional use of any bugs, glitches, or errors in the game are penalized. Furthermore, it is up to the Tournament administration's discretion whether or not the use of said bugs had an effect on the match, and whether or not he will award rounds, or the match to the opposing Team, or to force a rematch. In extreme cases, the penalty for abusing bugs may be even higher.

The usage of the following bugs is strictly forbidden, if any bug is used which is not listed here it is up to the Tournament administration's discretion whether or not a punishment is necessary.

Warm-up – map check:

Bugs on load have to be checked before the match starts (missing boxes, ladders and so on). Failure to do so, and to let the match start, will mean that both Teams have accepted the state the map is in, and the match will be continued under these settings. Protests and complaints regarding such issues will not be adhered to.

During the match:

Moving through any walls, or ceilings, are strictly forbidden, also moving through the floor, or anywhere else which were not intended to be a passage is strictly forbidden.

“silent planting“ is strictly forbidden (planting the bomb in such a way that no one can hear the beeping)

To plant the bomb where it is impossible to reach is disallowed. Planting the bomb in a place that you can reach with a boost from a teammate is not part of this rule.

Standing on top of teammates is generally allowed, it is only forbidden, when such actions allow the Player to peek over a wall, or ceiling that should not be allowed according to map design.

Using flash bugs are strictly forbidden.

Throwing grenades under walls are forbidden, although throwing grenades and flashes over walls are allowed.

„map swimming“ or „floating“ is forbidden

„Pixel walking“ is forbidden (Sitting, or standing on invisible edges on the map).

General:

Generally, the use of any bugs in the game is strictly forbidden. (For example: spawn bugs).

An exception are the following bugs which are explicitly allowed:

Defusing the bomb through walls and items etc.

So called “surfing” on tubes

The Tournament administration reserves the right, also retroactively, to add more bugs to the list of explicitly allowed bugs.

7.16 New Positions

If any Player or Team wants to use a new position which is unknown to anyone else or just known to a small part of the community, it’s strongly recommended to contact the Tournament administration to check if that position is allowed before using it in any official match. Players and Teams have to consider that it takes time to check new positions and therefore they have to contact the Tournament administration in a reasonable timeframe before an official match.

The hero pool always consists of all heroes the game mode allows and might therefore change several times during the competition. The game must not be paused during the draft, unless a drafter disconnects.

8.3.2 Pauses

Each team has the right to pause the game for an acceptable duration, if a player announces it at least three seconds in advance and calls a coherent reason (exception: not necessary, if someone disconnects). The game must not be resumed before both teams agree with it. 15 minutes is the maximum time a team is allowed to pause in one match. If the 15 minute pause time is used by a team, the game will resume and no additional pause time will be allotted for a team.

8.3.3 Disconnects and reconnects

If a player disconnects, the game is to be paused instantly. Everyone has up to ten minutes to reconnect to the game (if the same person disconnects more than once, all times get added up). If this time is passed, the opposing team may continue the game. The affected player is in this case still allowed to rejoin later on.

8.4 Bugs

If any serious bugs occur, the game has to be paused immediately and the administration decides how to continue. Abusing a bug is forbidden.

8.5 Tools/hacks

The usage of any Dota-related tool aside from Steam and Dota 2 during a match is strictly forbidden.

8.6 Ending

A game is finished, when an Ancient Fortress is destroyed, when the majority of a team leaves on purpose, or when the administration decides on it. (note: A game is not forfeited, when a player types "gg" or "ff". Always wait for the ancient to be destroyed!)

8.7 Game Format

Bo1 (Best of 1) - A single match is to be played to determine the victor.

Bo3 (Best of 3) - A maximum of 3 matches will be played where the team winning 2 games out of 3 will be declared as the game winner.

8.8 Toss

The toss is determined to decide which team gets to pick sides (radiant/dire) or drafting order(1st pick, 2nd pick)

Toss will be done by using the ingame client. Before starting the game, the lobby host will have the option to toss which will allow the teams to pick the sides and drafting format

8.9 Rematch

A rematch will be done only under these circumstances.

If there is network/steam issue caused by the client itself rendering the game to be unable to connect.

if there is any hardware issue which disallows the player to join the game.( lan event only)

The tournament organizer has to right to give victory to one of the either teams in such scenario if the result of the match is already clear to everyone due to a huge advantage in the game making it almost impossible for the opponent team to make a comeback.

8.10 Match media

The winning team must upload their match media from their match to the match info page (screenshots). Match media should be named clearly based on what it is.

Tournament Organizers hold the right to make changes in the rule book without any prior notice at their own discretion.

Players are open to participate on any or all tournament days. However, a once a player has won once in a calendar week, he/she cannot participate in the same week again. The same player can however participate in next week tournament.

7.3 Reporting

Tournament Organizers will send email and SMS with participating information to all the players who have registered themselves through tegamingcup.com website, one day before each tournament day.

Three days in a week, a custom lobby will be hosted by the Admin and the first 100 people to join the lobby will be able to play the event on that day. (First come first basis)

Email will include all the necessary lobby information required for a player to join the lobby and report in the tournament lobby.

7.4 Cheating

Tournament organizers reserves the right to disqualify a player if he/she is found cheating.

The tournament organizers will be strictly monitoring the games and if a player is found cheating he/she will be removed from the server immediately.

7.5 Winner

Winner of each game will be awarded with a prize by the tournament organizers.

The winner will be awarded with the prize within 45 days from the date of successful submission of his/her valid identity & other prize claim documents requested by the tournament organizers.

All winners going to Taiwan will be given daily tasks of promoting their quality experiences from the trip on their social media & their team's social media accounts i.e FB, Twitter & Instagram.

Only air tickets, hotel as well as meals and traffic in Taiwan are free. Therefore, all winners should be responsible for their own visas, passports and other documents required for visa application.

Maximum there will be 5 winners in a team coming to Taiwan. Replacing team member is not allowed. If some of them cannot meet our schedule, they are requested to sign the letter of renunciation and no compensation will be made.

The process for visa need to be taken care by the participant including setting date for visa application. If they can't get a visa by a certain date, they will be forfeited from the opportunity without any compensation.